SteelOrbis has been informed that Chinese mills’ export prices for wire rod have moved down by $17.5/mt on average over the past week to $430-450/mt FOB, following a stable trend in the previous week. “Buying activities from Southeast Asia have been slack due to the coronavirus pandemic, negatively affecting ex-China offer prices,” a trader said.
One deal for SAE1008 wire rod has been heard at $430/mt FOB China for the Southeast Asian market, sources said. Nevertheless, since early this week some major Chinese mills have still been offering at $450/mt FOB or slightly higher, showing a reluctance to reduce prices significantly.
Overall demand in Southeast Asia has remained week and bids are still coming at $425-430/mt CFR from the Philippines and Vietnam
During the given week, inventories in the local Chinese wire rod market have continued to move down, indicating that demand has improved from downstream industries. However, some market players consider that the improvement has not been as good as expected. Jiangsu Province-based Shagang Group has held its offer prices for high-speed wire rod stable for the April 1-10 period.
As of Thursday, April 2, rebar futures at the Shanghai Future Exchange are standing at RMB 3,306/mt ($454.8/mt), increasing by RMB 77/mt ($10.9/mt) or 2.4 percent since April 2. It is expected that better demand in the local market and some slight reduction in the supply of wire rod due to maintenance at some mills will support wire rod prices and will prevent them from declining further.
$1 = RMB 7.0536